/ December 4, 2016

For Philip, the wait was over. There was something about Jesus, that when he said “Follow me!”, Philip did. He sees in Jesus the possibility that his hopes will be fulfilled. We don’t know what his hopes were, but like anyone living under an oppressive regime, it is likely to have involved the over throw …

/ November 9, 2016

This blog is based on a sermon I gave at my church – disciple the nations! Matthew’s Gospel is often portrayed as the most Jewish of the four Gospels. The general theory is that it was written for Jewish Christians scattered after the Romans destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. This may be true, but to …

/ October 25, 2016

Americans are nice people – really they are! This is what I am reminding myself frequently at the moment. I’ve met many Americans, and they are generally very kind generous, warm-hearted people. Some have followed their national stereotype of being entertainingly gullible, but have always been pretty decent. Based on the Americans I have met, …

/ October 2, 2016

“Should an engaged couple be Frank and Ernest?” I can remember being oh so clever as a boy telling this joke. But even then it was outdated! The only people called Frank or Ernest were even older than my parents. Names go in and out of fashion. My name was the third most common boys …

/ September 16, 2016

For anyone interested in Turkey, the events of 15th July were shocking. Whatever the criticisms of Erdoğan’s premiership and government, he does have a very strong political mandate from the ballot box. The attempted coup was a blatant attack on democracy. That night saw a significant loss of life. It is strange that most Western …

/ September 10, 2016

Here is an illustration that motivates me as a teacher. Imagine three boys watching a local football match. The three boys are all different heights. They are all standing on level ground, watching the match. Level ground – equality. The problem is that there is a fence. Two of the boys can see over, but …

/ August 24, 2016

The big cities in the west of the country (Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir) was historically where the wealth was. Here you would find the liberal intelligentsia, who celebrated Ataturk. They saw themselves as the educated, secular proponents of modern Turkey. They were the politically active and would look down on the köy (village) people in …

/ August 12, 2016

We’re told that the majority of Turks think Gülen was behind the coup. But then, wouldn’t you, if to say otherwise means you are accused of being a Gülenist and risk losing your job? As an outsider looking in, it can seem very difficult to follow accusation and counter accusation. As a Brit who used …

/ August 4, 2016

A fellow teacher sings in a choir. He loves church music and jovially describes himself as a cultural Christian. To him evangelical is bad news. He described to me how it was an evangelical Christian who came and complained bitterly that most of their music is sung in latin and should not be allowed in …

/ August 1, 2016

So why another blog? What do I have to contribute to the blogosphere? That’s a very hard question to answer. Firstly, my day to day job counts against me being interesting. A few years ago my daughter complained how boring my job is compared with the other dads in her class. It was particularly harsh that …